A Different Kind
by Akari Sennyami
Summary: R+R please! *One-shot* The pair have an argument (big surprise there!), but when Inuyasha goes to find Kagome and patch it up, he comes across a different kind of girl... I/K I swear! ^_^


Disclaimer:  The rights and ownership of 'Inuyasha' aren't mine.

Author's note:  Hey, my first one-shot without any rain or snow!  Though not my first one-shot, of course.  ^_^  This _is _just a one-shot, by the way, so no more chapters.  I had this idea after watching the Inuyasha movie, and thinking about the possibilities/practicalities of the well.

  Anyhoo, enjoy!

 **A Different Kind**

  "It's not like I care what you think anyway!"

  "Good!  'Cos I don't give a damn what you want me to say!"

  "Fine!"

  "Fine, bitch!"

  "Inuyasha!"

  "Don't you dare-"

  "SIT!"

  _Crash._  

  "I'm going HOME!"

  "Damned wench…  She always wins every argument the same way…"

  Inuyasha rubbed the still-twitching muscles in his lower back as he sat crouched by the thick trunk of a tree.  The moon shone from a place near to the shadowed horizon, still faint as it gathered its silver light for the trek across the night sky.  Inuyasha leant back against the tree, black brow lowering over his flaming amber eyes, the more angry variation of his usual annoyed expression sitting darkly on his face.

  _She gets all mad over nothing, and every single time, it's 'SIT SIT SIT!' and that's it.  I'm not gonna always keep my mouth shut for her!  And there's no point trying to predict what'll set her off._

  Inuyasha let a low growl rumble in the back of his throat.

  "Keh!  If she was the one with this stupid necklace…"

  "Inuyasha!"

  The hanyou's ears pricked at the sound of his name being called.  It was Miroku.

  The monk jogged out into the forest clearing, and, spotting Inuyasha, slowed to walk the remaining distance.

  He dropped to the grass beside the dog demon.

  "You're gonna tell me to go and apologise, aren't you?" Inuyasha asked irritably.

  "You don't have to apologise.  But I do think you should at least go and find her.  Try and smooth things over."

  Miroku spoke quietly, in a rare serious tone.  Inuyasha knew that Miroku was only trying to be reasonable, and he also knew that his friend had a point.  But it was still unfair that Kagome was always the one who rushed off in a huff, and Inuyasha was always the one who had to apologise and take the blame.  

  "Is it just because she's a girl?" he asked in genuine irritated bafflement.

  Miroku considered it.  "I don't know.  But I know that women like to be treated with care, and with respect."

  A pause fell.  Insects chirred in the gathering dusk, and some stars began to glow overhead in the patchy sky.

  "Whatever the reason, there won't be any peace, and nothing will get done, until this is sorted out.  Be a man, Inuyasha: take responsibility and settle this.  It'll just get worse if you don't.  Gods know Kagome could stay in her time for weeks otherwise."  Miroku ran a hand through his dark hair as he spoke, obviously anxious and weary.

  Inuyasha stole a glance at him, and felt his proud, obnoxious side subside, just a little.

  "Keh."

  Just then, Shippou came galloping out of the forest.  

  "Sango says she's having a wash, so don't go near the hot springs or she'll slap you so hard you'll forget where your face is," he said, with a face scrunched up in concentration as he repeated the message exactly the way Sango had said it.  The resemblance was somewhat uncanny, really.

  "Well, I'm going for a bath too!  See you later!" Shippou then added, turning and scampering back the way he'd come.

  Almost in the same instant, Miroku rose, a grave expression on his face.

  "Where are you going?"

  "To the hot spring."

  Inuyasha looked confused for a moment, then shook his head with a, "You'll only get slapped."

  "It's a sacrifice I'm willing to make," Miroku replied over his shoulder, as he kept walking.  He was soon gone.

  Inuyasha sat there a moment longer, before he rose.  "Respect women, huh?"

  With that, he began bounding his way through the forest towards the well.

  It was a square block of shadow in the shady night.  

  It was the doorway to Kagome's time.

  It was the gateway to yet another apology, and yet another patch up.

  Inuyasha sighed.  He stared down into the well with a scrunched-up nose, obviously far from satisfied.  But he'd do it: Miroku was right; nothing would get done if he didn't take the initiative and sort it out.  They'd never find Naraku, that's for sure.

  "Keh.  Fine."

  Inuyasha was just falling easily through the small, shadowy tunnel when he heard a whirring sound by his shoulder.

  By the time he turned his head to see what it was, his feet had found solid ground on the bottom of the other side of the well.  

  He leapt to land lightly on the floor beside the old tunnel, and moved forward to pull open to door of the wooden building that housed the well.

  He paused abruptly, remembering what he'd heard before, and stopped to check what the whirring sound had been.

  There was nothing on his shoulder or in his hair.  He walked back and leant over the side of the well, peering down to see if whatever it was was down there.  

  Suddenly, a small dragonfly-like insect flickered its way past his ear, and vanished out of the door.  The darkness of the night outside swallowed it, and the chirring of its wings died away.  Whatever it was, it was gone.

  Shrugging, Inuyasha headed outside, easily leaping his way across the open courtyard to the family home nearby, landing on the slope of roof beside Kagome's bedroom window.

  He peered inside, but it was in darkness, not even the bedside light on.

  His demon eyes could see that the bed was empty, and no one was in the room.

  He turned and sat down on the roof tiles, his face thoughtfully puzzled.  "Where is she?"

  That was when he heard a small "Ouch!" from the direction of the sacred tree.

  Curious, and wondering if it was Kagome outside in the moonlight, he dropped from the roof and headed for the great old tree.

  He was greeted with the sight of a little girl crouched by the towering trunk, eyeing one of her hands with a pout and teary eyes, not to mention a decidedly wobbly chin.  Her ink-black hair glimmered faintly in the moonlight, her blue eyes shining with youth as well as her tears.  Crouched as she was, her slim frame seemed improbably tiny and fragile against the looming solid mass of the tree behind her.

  As Inuyasha stepped closer, the girl noticed his presence and glanced up with startled eyes at the red-clad figure in front of her.

  Inuyasha expected her to say something like "Who are you?" or maybe what was more likely "What are you?" but there were no such questions.

  The girl merely gazed up at him for a moment with wide eyes, before her face crumpled up, tears flew and she cried, "It hurts!"  She held out her finger as evidence, but Inuyasha couldn't see anything obviously wrong with it from where he stood.

  Deciding the little girl wouldn't mind, or she would have already screamed at the sight of him, Inuyasha walked right up to her and fell into a crouch in front of her, taking the tiny finger in his clawed hand.

  He looked closely, ears twitching at the sniffles of the child.  There was a tiny dark line in her finger: she had a splinter.

  "I tried to climb the tree but I couldn't and I got a splinter and fell down, see my knee is hurt too," blubbered the girl, lifting her leg to put her bruised knee in front of Inuyasha's face, before letting it back down.  "I can't get the splinter out and my knee hurts when I stand up," finished the child, fresh tears spilling down her face, glittering in the moonlight.

  _Who is this girl?  Some relation of Kagome's?  She does smell a lot like Kagome,_ thought Inuyasha.  _If I help this girl out, maybe the wench will just forget about our argument: she'll probably be pretty impressed with me, actually._

  With that decided, Inuyasha looked at the splinter in the girl's finger again.

  "Why were you climbing the sacred tree?" he asked absently.  _Especially at this time- it's not that late, but still._

  "My special ribbon got blown up there by the wind earlier today, and grandpa said he'd get it back for me tomorrow but I can't sleep without it, my daddy gave it to me and he's gone now, and he said I should take care of it and I let it get blown away and I couldn't climb the tree and- and-"  Her sentence was drowned in fresh tears as she burst out crying again.

  Inuyasha felt a little overwhelmed.  He belatedly reached out to stroke the girl's back comfortingly, and when her sobs finally stilled, he wiped away her tears with the back of a finger.

  "Okay now?"

  The girl nodded a little uncertainly.

  "Don't worry.  I'll get out this splinter, and I'll get your ribbon back," he promised, bringing his head down level with the girl's so she could see he was being truthful.  She searched his face for a moment, then nodded again, more confidently that time.

  "This'll sting a little bit," Inuyasha warned.  The girl's face took on a brave, determined expression that was so like Kagome's that Inuyasha almost laughed, seeing the look on such a small and cute young face.  _She is a lot like Kagome._

  Inuyasha remembered how his mother had got a splinter out of his own finger once, and used the same technique now.

  Taking the girl's little finger into his mouth, he sucked gently.  The girl winced, but didn't cry out.

  When he took her finger out, he carefully pulled at the now exposed end of the splinter, and that was it.  Inuyasha flicked the offending slip of wood away.  He released the girl's hand.

  She stared at her finger.  "Wow, you did it!  You're amazing!" she cried.

  Inuyasha couldn't repress his grin at the smile that had burst across the girl's face like sunshine.

  "Now for the ribbon," he said, standing and looking up into the branches of the giant tree.

  He leapt to a larger branch, and glanced around.  The ribbon wasn't hard to spot: it was bright red, dangling from a lower branch nearby.  Inuyasha picked it up and dropped back to the ground beside the girl, handing it back to her.

  "You got it back!  Thank you!"  The little girl surprised Inuyasha as she suddenly leapt towards him, throwing her arms around his neck as he knelt beside her.  He felt a little bewildered, but a warm smile soon spread over his face.  _Cute kid._

  When the girl pulled back, her eyes had glazed over a little and she was looking a little sleepy.

  "Your clothes are warm," she said.  She looked up at the top of his head, bent down such that he could meet her eyes.  "I like your ears.  Can I touch them?" she whispered, as if afraid her request would make Inuyasha annoyed.  His first reaction was to bluntly refuse: he'd had his ears tweaked before, and it usually hurt.  But something about this child made him indulge her wish.

  He bent his head further down in silent acquiescence.  He heard the girl's sleeves move against her arms, and they brushed lightly against his cheeks, as she reached out, hesitated, and reached further, and he heard the way she held her breath as her fingers made contact with his ears.  One hand on each ear, she first traced the outline of the white fur, then, very carefully, stroked from the place where they met his head to the pointed tips.  Inuyasha felt a strange urge to purr, but pushed the impulse firmly away.  It was bad enough that he was letting a child stroke his ears, never mind purring!  Good thing no one else was around to see it.  Especially Kagome: she'd laugh 'til she cried, he was certain.

  Enough of this, then.  As the girl pulled her hands away, she let out her breath in a rush, a smile on her face when Inuyasha looked up at her.  She was looking more tired by the minute, despite her happy expression.

  "Do you sleep in the house over there?" Inuyasha asked then, pointing at Kagome's house.

  The little girl nodded, tiny hands clinging to his red rat-fur sleeve.

  "Okay."  He lifted the girl easily in his arms, and, ribbon twined securely around her fingers, she smiled contentedly.

  Inuyasha got to the house, and wasn't sure what to do.  Should he knock?  That would wake everyone up, and Kagome might get annoyed all over again.

  "Which room are you sleeping in?" he asked the girl.

  She pointed mutely up at Kagome's window.  _She must be letting this kid sleep in her room while she stays here,_ Inuyasha guessed.

  He jumped up and thankfully the window wasn't locked.

  They were soon in the room, and Inuyasha laid the little girl down on the bed.  She was already falling asleep by the looks of it.  Her black hair lay a little messily over one cheek and across the pillow, and Inuyasha smoothed the dark strands away from her face gently.  The girl sighed in her sleep, and one little hand reached out to grab one of Inuyasha's clawed fingers, wrapping her own tiny fingers around it.

  Inuyasha froze.

  He tried to tug his hand away, but she wouldn't let go.  He tried prising her fingers off, but they wouldn't budge.

  Finally, he gave up, and sat on the floor beside the bed and the sleeping girl.

  The moonlight poured peacefully over his shoulder as he watched the restful child, listening to her soft breaths ripple in the stillness of the night.  _That dark hair…  The eyes…  She really is a lot like Kagome.  Maybe they're cousins or something._

  Inuyasha stayed through the night, sat beside the sleeping child and watching her innocent, peaceful slumber.

  Dawn found Inuyasha back in the feudal era.

  Kagome hadn't turned up, so he could only guess that she had gone back without him realising it, maybe while he'd been talking to Miroku or something.

  He found her crouched on the ground a little way from the others, who were sleeping peacefully enough, though Inuyasha thought he could see the faint outline of a hand mark on Miroku's cheek.

  Kagome looked up as she heard Inuyasha approach.  She looked upset about something.

  "What's wrong?" he asked without thinking, forgetting that he was supposed to be annoyed at her still.

  "My finger hurts," she said woefully, holding out her hand for Inuyasha to see.

  She had a splinter in her finger.  Inuyasha wanted to laugh at the déjà vu.  

  The tears in her mournful eyes stopped him.  She was obviously in pain.

  "I got it as I climbed out of the well yesterday evening, and I couldn't get it out, so I just left it there, but I woke up when it was stinging really badly this morning," she mumbled tearfully.

  "Okay, okay," Inuyasha hushed her.  He took her finger in his hand, and lifted it to his mouth.  He wondered if that was a blush on Kagome's face as he took the end of her finger into his mouth, and sucked gently.

  Same as before, he took her finger from his mouth and with a careful tug, the splinter was gone.

  A quiet pause descended as Kagome dipped her head, eyes hidden beneath her fringe.

  "Thank you."

  Inuyasha shifted a little uncomfortably, feeling a blush creep across his face.  "You're welcome."

  He suddenly remembered to ask, "Oh, Kagome, do you have a little girl staying with you at the moment?"

  "Huh?"

  "A little girl- maybe five or six, dark hair like yours?  I thought she might be your cousin or something."

  "I don't have any cousins."

  "Oh."

  _So who was that girl?_

  "You know, it's really strange, but you getting the splinter out like that…"  Kagome blushed again.  _It seemed familiar somehow._

  Inuyasha heard a voice from the camp nearby, and stood up.

  "I think the others are waking up.  Let's go."

  Kagome gazed up at him for a moment, then, smiling, she nodded and rose.

  "Sango, quick!  Get away from there!"

  "Huh?"  Sango scrambled away, nonetheless, at Miroku's cry, which had woken her up.

  She looked back, blinking with glazed eyes, to see a weird kind of dragonfly dart away from where she'd been sleeping.

  "What was that?" she asked.

  "It's a kind of insect demon that messes up time.  If it had touched you, you could have missed half your day- or gone back to the middle of the night," explained Miroku.

  "Oh.  Thanks," Sango said, before heading back to her futon for some more sleep.

  "I think you should sleep over here now, Sango- it might come back," Miroku said seriously, lifting his blanket and shifting over a little.

  Sango just looked at the monk with a distinctly 'not amused' expression on her face.

  Miroku's face was saved from another slap when Kagome and Inuyasha appeared.

  "You're back!" Shippou cried, appearing out of seeming nowhere and grinning up at Inuyasha.

  "You settled the argument then?" Miroku said.

  "What argument?" asked Inuyasha.

  Kagome just smiled.

  "Yes, we did."

Author's note:  ^_^  Hope you liked it.  I enjoyed writing it.  Well, please leave your thoughts!


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